


to be alone with you

by orphan_account



Category: Call Me By Your Name - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Elio is 20 - Oliver is 27, Fluff and Angst, M/M, The total opposite of a slow burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-09-05 20:12:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16817641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “I swear to god Isaac, he was so pretty I almost cried a little.”“Well, you’ve always had a thing for twinks.”“Fuck off.” Oliver threw the dish towel at him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so i was really bored and wanted to write something. So, this happened. 
> 
> As always, no beta and only edited by me via Grammarly so there are lots of mistakes, I apologise  
> Not very well written, I'll be honest, very dialogue heavy, but hey i had fun writing it so who cares if a 12 yr old could do it better
> 
> Enjoy
> 
> (comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated)

The first time Oliver had met Elio, he’d been drunk.  
  
Fumbling with the keys, attempting to get it into the lock and it should not be so damn difficult to open doors.

The door opposite his swung open. “Uh, you need someone help there?”

Oliver had known that someone new had moved in opposite him about a week ago, he’d seen a woman with boxes but didn’t manage to say anything to her and had not seen his new neighbour since.

Oliver turned around and dropped his keys.

He looked even better than his voice sounded.

“No, I’m good. Great. I’m Oliver!” In his haste to offer his hand for the other man to shake, he tripped over his feat almost knocking himself to the floor.

“Had a little too much fun tonight?” Oliver wanted to kiss that sardonic smile of the boys face. 

“Oh, no just, ha yeah maybe. Sorry, if I woke you.” Oliver wanted to bang his head the door.

“No, I was up, just wanted to check someone wasn’t trying to break in. I’m Elio.”

“Elio,” he said, enunciating each syllable. “Latin right?”

“Well, Italian but from the Latin yes.”

“Well, I should leave you. Let you sleep.” Oliver turned back to his door.

“Um, your keys are still on the floor.”

“Oh shit yeah, I knew that, was just uh, yeah I was about to get those.” Oliver was very thankful he managed to pick his keys up without falling and opened the door without too much difficulty. “Later, Elio!”

* * *

All that week Oliver could not stop thinking about the man living across the hall from him. He hadn’t crossed paths with him since that night, yet he had already entered into Oliver’s dreams in some very not safe for work ways.

“I swear to god Isaac, he was so pretty I almost cried a little.”

“Well, you’ve always had a thing for twinks.”

“Fuck off.” Oliver threw the dish towel at him.

“Talk to him, dude. Since when do you get all shy? You’re the most arrogant dick I know.” grinned Isaac

“I don’t know man. There was just something about him.”

Isaac rolled his eyes. “Just knock on his door and talk to him.”

Oliver opened his mouth to protest, but Isaac continued. “Look, Olly, if he’s been on your mind this much, there is something there worth exploring. Do something for yourself, follow this.”

* * *

All he had to do was knock on Elio’s door. Welcome him to the neighbourhood. Isaac had given him a box of pastries to give as a ‘welcoming gift’.

“Here goes nothing,” Oliver muttered under his breath and knocked on Elio’s door.

A few moments later it swung open, and there was Elio, somehow looking even better than Oliver had remembered.

“I uh, well you’ve been here like two weeks now and I never properly introduced myself.”

“Oh, yeah, sure, do you wanna come in?” Elio gestured over his shoulder with his thumb.

“If you don’t mind.”  
  
“Not at all.” Elio led Oliver through to the living room. “Do you want something to drink? I was about to open a bottle of wine.”  
  
“Wines good with me. I got these for you.” Oliver handed him the box of pastries. “My friend works at a bakery so I thought I could give you some stuff.”

“Thanks. I’ve been craving something sweet all day.” Elio beamed at him. “Take a seat make yourself comfortable. I’ll put these away and get us a drink.”

Oliver took a seat on the sofa and looked around the room. It was a beautifully decorated apartment. White walls, cream furniture, paintings, a piano on the far end of the room. It suddenly occurred to him that the women who he saw here must be a relative of Elio’s.

 _Oh god._ He thought. _What if it’s his mother? What if she’s here? What the hell do I say? Hi, ma'am, I was just here because I want your son in my bed and riding my dick, here’s a box of pastries!_

Elio returned a few moments later, a bottle of wine under his arm, a wine glass in either hand.

“You live here alone?” asked Oliver. _Please say yes. Please say yes. Please say yes._

“Yeah.”

_Oh, thank god._

“It’s my mom's technically. She used to live here when she worked for the UN.” Elio poured the wine into the glasses and handed one to Oliver.

“Thanks.” He took a sip of wine. “Does she still work there?”

“No she’s retired, so’s my dad. They live in Italy now. They’ve pretty much given this place to me as I’m in New York almost full time.”

“Yeah, I’m in similar situation. My apartment was my grandmothers, she never lived in it, but she rented it out. Left it to me when she passed away. I’d never been able to afford anything like this on my salary otherwise.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m a professor.”

“Of what?” Elio asked.

“Classics.”

“You’re a little young to be a professor.”

“I am twenty-seven.” It suddenly occurred to Oliver he didn’t know how old Elio was. While he was attractive but Oliver was not about to proposition an eighteen-year-old. “How old are you?”

“Don’t need to look so worried,” Elio chuckled. “I’m twenty.”

“At College?”

“Yeah Julliard.”

“Congratulations, that’s a great school. What year are you in?”

“On to my second. Started later because I took a year out, lived in student accommodation the first year to get to know everyone. Decided I want to live alone for the rest of the time.”

“That’s fair.” Oliver took another sip of wine. “So, do you act or do music?”

“Music, piano mainly.”

“Yeah, I saw you have one. I’d ask you to play for me, but I bet you get sick of being asked that huh?”

“Maybe another time.” Elio winked. “More wine?” he poured the remaining contents of the bottle into his and Oliver’s glass, placing the empty bottle back on the table.

“If you didn’t look so innocent I’d think you were trying to get me drunk,”

Elio took a long gulp of wine and placed his glass on the table. “Maybe I’m not as innocent as I look.”

He could see the faint sheen of wine on across Elio’s lips. He wanted nothing more than to lick it away. “College doesn’t start for another month. Is there a reason you moved in early?”

“My mom and dad are spending the last two weeks of August in London so I thought I’d come here at the start of the month and get settled in,” Elio answered.

“So, apart from pianos and wine. What do you for fun?”

“Well,” Elio smiled at him, a lock of hair fell onto his forehead. It took all of Oliver’s willpower not the brush it away. “My dad used to teach classics, so I’m really into that. I’m re-reading the Iliad right now.”

And, so that’s how Oliver spent his evening, on Elio’s sofa, sipping on wine talking about Achilles and Patroclus, weirdest mythology stories they knew, and every minute Elio spoke, Oliver could feel himself falling deeper and deeper.

_I am so screwed._

* * *

It’d been around three weeks since that night. The term had started again, so his busy schedule was now back in full force. Despite both of them having a busy workload, he and Elio had been spending time pretty much every other day. Oliver still wanted to crawl over to Elio and kiss him every time he saw him, but he thought it’d be better to wait. If Elio wasn’t interested, he didn’t want to scare him off.

It’s Saturday, Elio’s sitting on his couch reading while Oliver attempted to get through a stack of essays that needed marking.

Elio had knocked on his door about an hour ago standing awkwardly in the doorway.

_“Is it okay if I read in here?”_

He had spoken so quietly Oliver had barely heard him.

_“It’s just a little lonely in my apartment. It’s fine if you're busy.”_

“Okay, I’m done,” Oliver said, throwing the essay he was marking and his pen onto the table. “I can’t read any more of these.”

“That bad huh?” Elio asked not looking up from his book.

“People did not take my advice for essay writing.” Oliver’s stomach growled. “You hungry? I was thinking of making pasta.”

Elio folded the corner one of the book's pages and set it down on the table. “You seriously want to make pasta for the Italian?”

“It’ll help you embrace your American side.” joked Oliver

Elio sat up, shifting closer to Oliver. “That’s just an excuse to give me bad food.”

“You do with a little fattening up. You’re like a twig.”

“It’s called a fast metabolism.”

Oliver couldn’t stand Elio being so close. His gaze flickered down to his mouth.

“Have I got something on my face?”

“What?”  
  
“You keep looking at my mouth.”

Elio’s face was inches from his now. He could feel his breath on his skin, lips wet and plump, Oliver couldn’t help himself. “Well, you do have a gorgeous mouth.”

“Oliver,”

“Can I kiss you?”  
  
“Yes please.”

He closed the gap between them. He tried to be as precise and soft about it as could. Methodically, slowly, he worked his lips against Elio’s, coaxing his mouth ever-so-slightly open. 

Oliver pulled away, running his thumb over Elio’s bottom lip. “Dinner first.”  
  
“If you’re gonna tease me like this I am definitely in charge of making the pasta now.”

"That's fair."

"You're the sous chef." Elio stood up and walked off towards the kitchen. "Andiamo americano." 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for mentions of sexual assault - very clear when it starts and ends - it's a big chunk of text in italics 
> 
> as always, no beta, lots of mistakes, not great writing, but i had fun writing it so i hope you have fun reading it.
> 
> if there is such thing as a fast burn this would be it

Elio had been spending a lot of his free time at Oliver’s apartment. It was nice to work with someone else there, he hated being alone in his apartment. However, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Oliver didn’t want him around. He couldn’t pick a specific comment but it was just a feeling.  
  
He could practically hear his old therapist in his head talking about ANTS and the inner critic. He knew it was irrational but he couldn’t help it.

The sex was nice, great, brilliant even. But, what if that was all Oliver wanted? What if he didn’t care about Elio at all. They hung out together in his apartment, sure. But there were no dates, no lying together and talking. Nothing that would indicate Oliver wanted anything more than to fuck.

He was sitting on Oliver’s sofa flicking through TV channels while Oliver was next to him reading. He flicked past a local news channel.

“ _Patrick Wayland,_

Elio knew that name. The remote fell to his side.

_Age 36 was guilty today of statutory rape, sexual assault and the possession and distribution of child pornography. He will serve a minimum of seven years. Mr Wayland used to teach at Jefferson Academy, a prestigious Upper East Side private high school. He was dismissed from the school in 2013 after present and former students came forward about his behaviour. Jefferson Academy is currently under an independent investigation for covering up the allegations and dismissing Wayland without informing the police. Mr Wayland continued to teach at public high schools until being arrested earlier this year after a student reported a sexual assault by Wayland to the police. Mr Wayland pleaded not guilty to all charges. The prosecution has said they are delighted with the verdict saying that his victims finally have justice and a dangerous sexual predator, targeting vulnerable teenagers, has been taken off the streets. The defence refused to comment.”_

Elio wanted to throw up.

“Hey, baby I’m gonna clean this stuff up, you wanna go in the bedroom?” Oliver pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“I have to go.” He couldn’t breathe.

“Is something wrong?” The feeling of Oliver’s hand on his back now felt like it was burning him.

“I want to go.” _Do not cry. Don’t let him see you like this._

“Did I do something?” Was it concern in Oliver’s voice? Pity? Disgust? Elio had to leave. He wasn’t going to be used again. If Oliver didn’t want anything but sex from him that was fine but he would not carry on with this.

Elio stood up abruptly, his book falling to the floor.  
  
“Elio!”  
  
He practically ran from the flat, the noise of the door slamming behind him was the straw that broke the camel's back. He bit his lip trying to stop the sobs escaping him.

“Hey!”

Elio attempted to shut his apartment door by Oliver’s foot blocked him from doing so.

“Seriously, Elio, I’m worried. What the hell is going on?”

He couldn’t look at Oliver. He left the door open with Oliver standing there and went to sit down on the sofa.

“I can’t do this, Oliver.” Elio sniffed.

“Can’t do what?” Oliver had followed him into the apartment, standing there in front of him. Elio still didn’t know what to do. How to feel.

“You don’t want to know me and that’s fine, but I can’t do it.” Elio clenched his eyes shut in an attempt to stop the tears from flowing.

“Of course I want to know you.” Oliver sounded frustrated now. “I hang out with you every other day, does that not mean anything?”  
  
“You don’t _know_ me though.” Elio looked up at him and laughed bitterly. “You just want something to put your dick into.”

Oliver grimaced. “I thought we’re friends.”

“What’s my last name?”

Oliver opened his mouth and closed it again. “Okay, so I don’t know that but I know a lot of other stuff about you.”  
  
“We’ve known each other for like two months. It’s not your fault, I assumed you wanted.” Elio cleared his throat, wiping away his tears with the back of his hand. “I don’t want you to be ashamed of me.”  
  
“Elio, I’d never be ashamed of you..” implored Oliver.

“I think you should go.”

“Are you serious?”

“Please, just go. I’m tired.”

“This isn’t over Elio,” spat Oliver. “Because this is fucking ridiculous.” He slammed the door as he left, the noise made Elio jump and set him off again.

Elio had never felt more lonely.

Not even five minutes after Oliver had left his phone rang with a call from him. Elio let it ring out.

When Oliver called again he declined the call. Before he even had a chance to think about things further, he had called his mother. It was morning there, she’d answer.

“Buongiorno mio tesoro!”

“Mama-” Elio’s voice broke and he couldn’t stop the tears falling thick and fast.

“Elio?” Her voice changed suddenly from light to deep concern. “What is it? What’s happened?”

“I made a mistake and I don’t know what to do.”  
  
“Deep breaths tesoro, tell me what happened.”

“I made a friend here, but I don’t think he wants to know me in that way. I think he’s ashamed of me and.” He tried to level his breathing. “I thought I wouldn’t make a mistake like this again but I thought I was doing better Mama. With friends and going places and talking but I”

“Just breath Elio, okay.”

“Vuoi parlare di più di quello che è successo?”

“Penso di aver reagito in modo eccessivo”

“You can talk to me about anything, Elio. Please don’t hide from me again.”

“Ho litigato con qualcuno che mi piacesse. Ma non penso che voglia essere amico.”

“What’s given you that impression?” she asked.

“It’s not one particular thing, it’s just a feeling.”

“Oh, Elio. I know given things in the past,”

“Mama, it isn’t about that.”

“But, Elio it is. What happened, it’s made you think that anyone who tries to get to know you then have an ulterior motive. That isn’t your fault, darling and you’ve worked so hard on it and you are much better. Are you seeing the counsellor at college?”

“No.”

“I think you should. Not just about this but it helped you before. I think you should keep going.”

“Okay,” Elio wiped his nose on his sleeve,

“Or I can ask your dad to find someone?”

“I don’t mind.”

“I’ll ask him tesoro, get him to text you about it.”  
  
“Thank you, Mama.”

“Je déteste cette maman.”

“Ne sois pas triste, ma chérie. I think that you like this person a lot and you’re scared of it going wrong. Talk to him, calmly, and you’ll get an honest answer.”

“Grazie mamma.”

“Tell me something good that’s been happening, Elio.”

“I’ve made some good friends I think. Three people on my course. I hang out with them a lot and I’m starting to get to know their friends.”

“That’s wonderful, tesoro.” Elio could practically hear the smile he knew she had on her face. “How are classes going?”

“Good, my teacher says I’m doing really well. I’ve written a lot more music too.”

“You’ll have to play us everything when we come for the holidays.”

Elio yawned audibly.

“I know it’s late there, Elio.” his mother said reproachfully. “You should get some sleep.”

“Thank you, for talking to me about this.”

“Never thank me for it Elio, you know you can talk to me or your father about anything.”

“I know, I love you guys”

“I love you too, darling. I’ll get your father to call later. Is it okay if I tell him what we talked about?”

“That’s fine. Say hello to Mafalda and Anchise for me.”

“I will tesoro, good night.”

“Bye, mama.”

Once he had gotten into bed Elio checked his phones messages.

**Four Texts from** **_Oliver_ **

**_‘Elio, I don’t know the hell is going on but could you please answer’_ **

**_‘Don’t decline the call, just fucking talk to me, I don’t know what i’ve done to annoy you this much or even know why you were fucking crying. Grow up, drop the bratty emo shit and talk to me.’_ **

**_‘Okay, that was rude, I shouldn’t have said that.’_ **

_**‘I assume you’re asleep or if you don’t want to talk to me right now that’s fine. Just text me in the morning. Even better would be if you came over. Tomorrow is my day off. Come by anytime. Good night.’** _

* * *

Elio avoided leaving the apartment for almost all of the next day. He needed to go see Oliver but he was most definitely going to put it off for as long as possible.

It had just passed seven in the evening when Elio finally plucked up the courage to across the hall and knock on Oliver’s door.

_Be honest, be calm tesoro_

“Elio.” Oliver was in sweats and a NYU jersey.

“Can we talk?” He hated how weak his voice sounded.

“Sure, come in. You want something to drink?”  
  
“No, thanks.” Elio took a seat on the couch.

“So,” Oliver sat down next to him. “You want to tell me what the fuck happened yesterday?”

He fixed his eyes firmly on the table in front of him. “I guess I’ve just been confused about what we’re doing, together, and I got scared that you didn’t want the same things as me and I just freaked out.”

“Okay, that’s fair.”

“I’m sorry.”  
  
“Hey, no, don’t apologise. I guess we should have probably discussed this stuff before hooking up.”

Elio picked at the skin around his thumbs nail. “What do you want from me, Oliver? Because I really do like you, but I don’t think I can carry this on if it’s just a sex thing.”

“Elio,” Oliver shifted closer to him. “Elio, please look at me”

He turned his head towards Oliver and it took most of his willpower not to start crying again.

“I really like you, Elio.” Oliver took his hand in his own. “I didn’t know what you wanted and I didn’t want to scare you off with talking about dating and all those things, I wanted to take it slowly with you.”

“To most people slowly means date first sex later.” Elio quipped.

Oliver smiled. “I guess, but we aren’t most people are we?”

“I guess not.”. Elio tucked himself against Oliver’s side and dropped his head onto his shoulder. “So, where do we go from here?”

“I’d like to date you Elio, exclusively. I feel that’s what we’ve been doing this past month anyway. We just haven’t spoken about it.”

“I’d like that, a lot.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t discuss this with you sooner.” He kissed Elio’s hand. “And I’m really sorry I made you so upset.”

“It’s okay. It wasn’t just that. I guess everything got a little overwhelming.”

“So, what is your last name? I should know that as your boyfriend.”  
  
“Oh god, I can’t believe I said that to you.” Elio tried to roll onto his side so his head was on Oliver’s lap, but he pulled him up so he was straddling Oliver, face to face with him. “It’s Perlman.”

“Elio.” Oliver kissed his neck. “Perlman.” Another kiss to his jaw. “You okay?”

“Me okay.”

“How about tomorrow I take you on a proper date?”

“I would like that very much Oliver Cohen.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and criticisms are always appreciated


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big warning for this is of child grooming and attempted sexual assault. The main chunk of it will be quite clear when starting to be talked about and it ends with “thank you for telling me”.
> 
> Other warnings are more general  
> \- alcohol  
> \- swearing  
> \- homophobic language (one use off the f slur)

“Farai meglio a baciarmi presto perché sono così vicino a mettermi in ginocchio e succhiare il tuo uccello.”

“As hot as that was, baby. I did not understand a word of that.”

“If you don’t hurry up and kiss me I will drop to the floor and start sucking your dick.”

“You wanna suck me off, baby?”

Oliver slid his hand up Elio’s thigh, rubbing the other man’s growing erection through his jeans, eliciting a mew of pleasure from him.

Oliver chuckled and grazed Elio’s neck with his lips. “While it would be very hot to have you on your knees right here. This is a very expensive couch and I don’t want to get lube on it when I fuck you.”  
  
Elio moaned softly.

“Bedroom?”

“Right fucking now,” Elio growled.

“So impatient.” Oliver swiftly picked Elio up in one motion, cradling him against his chest.

Elio yelped in surprise, wrapping his arms and legs around Oliver. “Asshole. Don’t you dare drop me.”

“Be nice baby or that pretty cock of yours is going to go untouched.”

“I hate you.”

“We both know that isn’t true.”

* * *

It’d been just over two months since they had started dating, properly. Oliver had never been happier. He didn’t know it was possible to fall for someone so fast.

However, his happiness was about to have a significant damper on it. He was going home for the weekend. His mother insisted he joins for their Hanukkah dinner and stay the weekend as _“Michael is going away at Christmas so we’re doing Christmas dinner this weekend, and I know that your university finished classes on Thursday so you have no excuse not to leave on Friday morning.”_

Spending the last few days of Hanukkah with people who he called family with the very loosest of meanings was certainly not what he wanted.

“I really do not want to go.” groaned Oliver, checking his phone to see the statues of his cab.  
  
“Then don’t,” Elio said, kissing his neck. “Stay in bed with me.

“I have to go, unfortunately.”

“Shame you’re missing out on seeing my parents. They really want to meet you.”

“You’ve been telling your parents about me?” Oliver grinned.  
  
Elio flushed and buried his face into Oliver’s neck. “We talk about everything.”

“God, you’re so lucky. I could never imagine being so open with family.”

“Well, you’re family are dicks.”  
  
Oliver laughed, pulling away from Elio. “When do your parents get here?”

“Couple hours. Sure you can’t stay?”

“Sorry baby. I can’t. Earlier I got the sooner I can come back.”

“When are your parents leaving?”  
  
“Monday.” Oliver could see the disappointment on Elio’s face. “They’re only coming by New York because as a stopover on the way back from seeing my dad’s sister.”

“You sure you don’t want to go back to Italy with them?”

Elio kissed him and Oliver really wished he could just stay here and do this. “No, they’re having so many old work people around I figured it’d be best to let them have this one alone.”

His phone pinged, indicating that his cab was outside. He let out a groan of frustration. “I’ve gotta go, baby. I’ll let you know when I’m there.”

“Want me to see to your cab?”  
  
“No, it’s freezing out there. Don’t want you catching a cold.”

“I’ll miss you. It’ll be weird not having you around.”

He pressed a kiss to Elio’s cheek. “I’m gonna miss you too.” His phone pinged again. “I better go.”

“Bye, Oliver.”

One final kiss and he managed to pull himself away from Elio and head out into the cold.

“Off to the Hamptons, right?” the cab driver asked once he was inside.

“Yep.” Oliver said, bitterness rife in his voice.

* * *

“You’re late.”

“Hello, mother. It’s lovely to see you too.”

“Lunch is just about to start. Put your things away upstairs and come into the dining room.” Her tone was even more clipped and harsh than usual.

Oliver already wanted to leave.

"Hey, guys." Oliver waved a hand in greeting once he finally plucked up the strength to enter the room.

"Olly!" Sarah jumped up from a seat and gave him a tight up. "I'm fucking dying Olly, thank god you're here," she whispered in his ear.

"Micheal, Lucy." he patted his brother on the back and gave his wife a polite smile.

"Hello, Oliver." his father said not looking up from his plate.

Oliver took a seat next to Sarah, dreading the next few hours.

*** * ***

“So, Oliver.” his mother's eyes fixed sharply on him. “Are you seeing anyone? You're twenty-seven, I think it's time you thought about settling down, no?” Almost three hours at the table and the conversation had finally been directed on him.

“Um, yes I am actually,” he replied as he picked at his dessert.  
  
His mother rolled her eyes. “You never tell us anything.”

“What does she do?” his father asked. Oliver was slightly grateful for him keeping the conversation away from him not being in contact with his family often.

“Still at college.”

His mother's eyebrows shot up. “How old is this girl, Oliver?”

"Twenty.”

“Oh, not a teenager then. What is she studying?”  
  
“Music at Julliard.”  
  
“Not a lot of money in that but I suppose it is quite an exclusive school and she must have a high GPA to get in. What do her parents do?”

Oliver was trying very hard not to bang his head the table. “Does it matter?”  
  
“I’m just asking!”  
  
“Their mother is a retired Italian diplomat. The father used to be a professor of classics, he now writes and does excavations.”

“Italian?” his mother queried. “Catholics?”  
  
“No, Jewish.”

To his surprise, his father let out a short laugh. “Your bubba would like her then.”

“Well, if she isn’t making money at least her family has it. Diplomats are paid very well. I don’t see why you couldn’t have-”

“Actually, mother. She is a he.”

Her fork clattered to her plate. “Excuse me?”

“I’m dating a he. I’m gay.”

“Oliver. This isn’t a very funny joke.”

“It’s not a joke. His name is Elio, we’ve been-”  
  
“Are you fucking kidding me?” bellowed Michael. “I’m running a campaign on family values and you are gonna do this shit to me?”

“Oh go fuck yourself Mike.” retorted Oliver. “Not everything is about you.”  
  
“What the hell am I gonna say if they ask me about my faggot brother?” he spat.

It took all of Oliver’s control not to lunge over the table and punch him.

“Michael be quiet.” his mother snapped. “Oliver, I think you should go now.”

“Fine, I’ll be upstairs if anyone needs me.”

“No, I think you should go home.” 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he raged.

His mother said nothing, just kept her piercing eyes upon him, the look of anger and disgust clear on her face.

“Mom, come on, you can’t ask-”

“Sarah,” Oliver shook his head at her. “Leave it.”

“But Olly-”

“Dad?” Oliver stood up from his seat and looked to his father. “You gonna say anything?”

His father remained silent.

“Great, okay. I’ll go get my stuff.”

* * *

Luckily, the traffic was light. He was able to get back to the city in a little over two hours. Declining each call from his father on the way. All he wanted was to see Elio and forget about the whole day.

He had practically run up the stairs to his floor. Banging on his door.

The door swung open a few moments later, and there was his Elio.

“Oliver! I thought you were at your parents?”

“I couldn’t stay.”  
  
“Is everything all right?”

Oliver pulled Elio into a tight hug. “Now I’ve seen you? Much better.”

Elio giggled pulling out of the hug and planting a kiss on his cheek. “Seriously though, what happened?”  
  
“I came out. Mom and Michael got bitchy and asked me to leave. So, I did.”  
  
“Fuck, Oliver, I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t care. I mean, Dad not saying anything was a little disappointing, but Sarah’s on my side. She’s the only one I’ve ever really liked anyway.”

“Come in, Oliver. You must be exhausted. Hey! You can meet my parents, I was just telling them about you.”

Fuck _._ It only just dawned on him that Elio’s parents would be here. They meant so much to Elio. He didn’t think this through at all.

Elio must have noticed a change in his expression because he took hold of his hand. “Oliver. They will love you. Come on.” He led him through into the living room where two other people were sitting.

“Oliver, these are my parents Annella and Samuel. Mom, Dad, this is my boyfriend Oliver.”

Oliver was just about to say his hellos when he noticed who the man on the sofa was. “Your dad is Samuel Perlman?”  
  
“Yeah? I thought you knew.” Elio laughed.

“No!”

“We have the same last name.”

“I thought that was a coincidence.”

Elio’s father stood up and shook Oliver’s hand. “It’s nice to know I have a fan then.”  
  
“Yeah, you saved my life during post-grad.”

He shook Elio’s mother's hand, who politely greeted him.

“Your last name wouldn’t happen to be Cohen would it?” Mr Perlman asked.

“Yes.”

Elio’s father started to laugh. “Oh Elio, I hope this lasts or it’ll make next summer very uncomfortable.”

“What?” Elio stared at Oliver shock. “You applied for my dad’s summer program?”  
  
“Ages ago. Wait you picked me?”  
  
“Yes, Oliver. I was planning on contacting you after the holidays,” replied Mr Perlman.

A timer went off, the sound beeping from the kitchen.

“That’ll be dinner,” Elio said. “Oliver sit down, you must be tired. Dad and I will sort it out.” he pressed a kiss to Oliver's cheek and left the room  
  
“I can help.” he offered.

“No, Oliver sit.” Mr Perlman said, following Elio through to the kitchen.

Oliver took a seat next to Elio’s mother, he suddenly felt very uncomfortable upon realising it was just them in the room. Her eyes were fixed on him, assessing.

“I wanted to have a conversation with you, Oliver."

He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. “Sure.”

“It really isn’t my place to tell you everything but I feel this needs to be said. I had a lot of troubling trying to conceive, the fact we had Elio is a small miracle. He really was the Helios in our lives. Samuel and I have always let him go his own way, make his own mistakes, come to us when ready. I know getting hurt is a part of life but I will always want to protect my boy.” Her gaze dropped to the floor. “There was a man, who when Elio was young, tried to take advantage of him. When he came to me, telling me about that man and what he was doing.” Annella looked up at him, misty-eyed. “That was the first time I truly felt like I had failed as a mother.”

“You couldn’t have-”

“I know, Samuel has told me many a time. I couldn’t have known. I can’t always protect him. But I could. I knew something was wrong. Elio was so turned in on himself, always hiding from me.” She took a sip of her wine and wiped away a stray tear. “I knew when I met that teacher, _something,_ was wrong about him, but I pushed that feeling away. If I hadn’t, if I had asked around or checked in, maybe.” Annella trailed off. “Since then, I’ve done my very best to keep people away from my family who I don’t trust. And we’ve all been as safe as we can be. But, when Elio called me, crying about you. Telling me there is a man who didn’t want to know him, who was ashamed of him” 

“I would never intentionally hurt Elio. The fact I made him feel that way, I still feel guilty and I’m sorry that I did that to him.”

“I’ll be honest, I had an impression of you built up in my head. That you would be one I’d have to keep away from my family and break my tesoro’s heart.” Annella smiled wistfully at him. “But, I haven’t seen Elio so much like himself in a long time. I think you bring out the best in him and seeing his face light up when looking at you, well, I trust you.”

“Thank you.” Oliver fixed his eyes firmly on the ground. “I do mean it. I’d never want to hurt Elio, I really love-.” his breath caught in his throat. “I really care about him.”

Annella reached over and took hold of his hand, forcing him to look up. “Welcome to the family, Oliver.”

* * *

Mr and Mrs Perlman had gone to bed early, tired from their flight. Oliver was on to the sofa, replying to a text from his sister about the dinner fiasco while Elio was getting changed into something more comfortable.

“So, uh, mom told me she spoke to you.” Elio came out from his room wearing a pair of sweats and his Julliard college jumper. He lay down on the sofa, head in Oliver’s lap.

“Really?” Oliver caressed his fingers through Elio’s hair.

“She tells me everything,” Elio said as if this were an obvious fact. “I guess you wanna know what happened.”

“Baby, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. If you feel like you can talk about it with me, then you can, but I don’t want to force anything out of you.”

Elio shifted on to his side so he was no longer looking up at Oliver, but was now facing the wall. “No, I want to tell you, it’s just I haven’t spoken about it in so long.”

“Take as much time as you need.”

“I was fifteen. I was doing really bad math, I was gonna fail and I couldn’t fuck up because if I messed up then, I knew I’d mess up later and my GPA and SAT score would be affected and I was worried.” Elio cleared his throat. “So, my teacher arranged extra lessons for me after school. They were innocent enough at first, but then he’d spend most of the time talking to me about how I was, my interests, and then he’d give me books and things as gifts. I know that sounds bad looking back but I was really lonely. All my friends were in Italy and I only had a couple of people I hung out with and I wasn’t that close with them. The attention was nice. Does that make me weird?”

“No,” Oliver said firmly. “He groomed you. That’s what people like that do. Take advantage of those young vulnerable. He wanted you to feel that way so you’d trust him.”

“I thought he actually wanted to get to know me. After that, he’d start touching my knees and rubbing my shoulders, put his arm around me. One time he started rubbing my thigh and he put his hand, further up, and I freaked out and I told him I’d tell someone, but he started shouting telling me he’d fail me and wouldn’t help and that I’d never get into college, that no one would believe me anyway and that he’d tell everyone I touched him and I’d get in trouble. It scared me, so I didn’t tell anyone.”

“Oh Elio, I’m so sorry.”

“It didn’t really go beyond that the next couple times, but then he stopped asking questions about me and talking, he just seemed to want to have his hands on me.”

“But one day he tried to take it further and he started kissing my neck and tried unbuttoning my shirt, I tried pushing him away and telling him no but he carried on so I kicked him and I ran and I could hear him calling me pathetic and disgusting.”

Oliver could hear that Elio was crying now. He held him tighter.

“I went home and I told my parents. My dad went straight to the school, my mom just held me while I cried.”

“What happened to him?”

Elio sniffed and sat up, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. “Turns out, of course, I wasn’t the only one he was doing this to. The school wanted to cover it up as best they could and no one wanted to take it to court, so they fired him, he went on to teach at public schools and did the same stuff. He was sent to prison a couple months ago actually.”

“Can I hug you?” Oliver asked gently.

Elio nodded, wrapped his arms, Oliver, nuzzling his nose into his neck.

Oliver rubbed soothing circles on Elio’s back. “I’m so sorry that this happened to you, I can’t even imagine how awful it must have been. Thank you for telling me.”

“Mom also said something else.”

Oliver made a noise of inquiry.

“She said you were telling her how much you loved me. Then she acted like she shouldn’t have used the word love. Did you tell her you loved me?”

He tensed. “I, it’s okay if you aren’t in that place. I know it hasn’t been long at all but-”

“Oliver.” Elio interrupted his rush of words. “I love you too.”

He let out a shaky breath. “Yeah?”

“I know it’s only been like four months since we met and we’ve only been together for two, but. I don’t know. I just feel it with you.”

Oliver held him closer. “I’m really glad I met you, Elio Perlman.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On a quick serious note - child grooming is a very serious issue so i’m including a link on what it is and how to get help if you are ever in that situation or think that someone you know is - https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/grooming/
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! The holiday season isn’t the easiest for me so i tend to throw all my feelings into writing as a sort of coping mechanism. 
> 
> I also know how difficult this time of year can be for my fellow queer and trans folk so i wish you all the happiness in the world. 
> 
> If things aren’t good now, I promise they will be. 
> 
> Happy holidays xxx


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